HEALTH SECRETARY: NTA TO BE ABOLISHED

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Health secretary Andrew Lansley announced today that bureaucracy will be cut as health "arm's length bodies" are reduced from 18 to 8-10, saving over £180m by 2014/15 – and one of the bodies to be abolished is the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse.

The White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, assessed whether the work of each body was essential, being duplicated or could be better carried out by a different body. Subject to parliamentary approval, organisations no longer needed will be removed from the sector, with essential work moved to other bodies. This process part of the cross-government strategy to increase accountability and transparency, and to reduce the number and cost of quangos.

"Over the years the sector has grown to the point where overlap between organisations and duplication of effort have produced a needless bureaucratic web," Lansley explained.

The Department will work with each organisation affected by the changes over the next few months to help them through the transition process. The form of this work will vary according to the nature and scale of the change for each organisation.

Abolished*:

Alcohol Education and Research CouncilNational Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse – functions to be transferred to the new Public Health Service